Many Riponites support dropping Saturday service

While responses were mixed from Ripon residents that learned Wednesday morning of the United States Postal Service’s plan to halt Saturday mail delivery, the Ripon almond farmer and South San Joaquin Irrigation District director said he’d welcome the change with open arms.

“They’d be doing me a favor – the little bit that we get on Saturday ain’t worth a hill of beans or the trip to go pick it up,” he said. “It’s usually lighter than during the week anyway. Good grief – it makes a lot of sense. That’s my opinion anyway.”

More than a dozen people were polled outside of the post office Wednesday afternoon to determine whether the move – which would likely begin in August and could save the struggling Postal Service $2 billion annually – would significantly impact their lives. No one had an issue with Saturday delivery being dropped.

Parcel packages would continue to be delivered on Saturdays, and Post Office sites that already keep Saturday hours would remain open.

“They need to get rid of more of their chiefs and have more Indians. I really don’t care one way or the other,” said one Ripon woman. “It’s not going to affect me because I don’t have a home business. It’s going to be a little inconvenient not getting mail on Saturday, but I do applaud them for trying to get their budget in order.”

Professionals like Attorney Tom Terpstra still rely on the Post Office for delivery of legal documents, but since Saturday isn’t technically a business day, he said, it likely won’t end up impacting filing dates that are important in fields such as his.

“It’s probably something that we could get used to,” Terpstra said. “As an attorney, for me anyway, something that is delivered on a Saturday, for filing purposes, is considered a Monday delivery. It doesn’t affect me all that much – I can’t say that it moves my needle all that much.”

Last year the post office lost $15.6 billion and is facing annual deficits of $21 billion by 2016 unless something is done to right the ship. And while Congressional oversight is technically needed to change the current 6-day delivery schedule, the federal government is currently operating on a continuing resolution that will expire at the end of March.

“The majority of what I get on Saturday is garbage,” said resident Sean Ballard. “I could care less if it doesn’t come on Saturday. All of my banking is done online, and the only thing that I really look for in my mailbox is the newspaper or something from the DMV. It won’t bother me.”